How working estimators quote broadloom carpet off a plan, from the first cut to the lines that protect the margin.
How do you quote a carpet job?
Plan the cuts before you price anything. Pick the wall to run off, set the direction, place the joins, fill robes and stairs from offcuts, then total the lineal metres off the roll. Price the carpet on those metres and add underlay, labour, smooth edge, trims, stairs and removal as separate lines.
Carpet is bought by the lineal metre off a roll of fixed width, so the floor area tells you very little about what you'll order. Two estimators can measure the same house to the same square metre and order quite different lengths, depending on which way they run the carpet and how well they use the offcuts. The cut plan is the quote.
That's why experienced estimators draw the cuts first and price second. The same cut plan then goes to the warehouse to cut from, to the installer to lay from, and to the client to sign off the join positions.
What do you need before you start measuring?
A scaled plan or a site measure, and ideally the carpet range. New builds usually arrive as builder PDF plans, while retail jobs get measured on site. If you don't know the carpet yet, quote it as if no join can show, because you can't assume a forgiving pile.
Check the plan's scale before trusting a single measurement. Builder plans are often not to scale or missing room dimensions, so set the scale off a known length such as a scale bar or a dimensioned wall. Plans are also sometimes simply wrong, like a recess drawn on the plan that turns out to be a cupboard on site.
On a retail job, measure every room wall to wall into the door openings, and measure stairs on site. Custom or wide stairs rarely match the plan.
Which roll width should you plan to?
Plan residential broadloom to 3.66 m rolls, but treat about 3.6 m as the usable width. The extra few centimetres go on trimming the factory edge and seam tape at each join, so a 3.62 m room usually needs a join. 4 m rolls turn up mostly on commercial ranges.
The warehouse cuts carpet to length, never down the width, so every drop you plan is the full roll width times whatever length you ask for. Assuming a full 3.66 m on a room that's 3.64 m wide is one of the quieter ways a quote goes wrong on the day.
Carpet is ordered in steps of 0.1 lineal metre, so round each cut up to the next tenth. A robe that measures 0.53 m deep gets a 0.6 m cut.
How do you choose carpet direction and join positions?
Run off the longest straight wall, keep the pile one way through any rooms seen together from the hallway, and put joins in doorways where you can. Failing that, put them where furniture will sit, like under the bed. A join across the middle of a living room saves carpet but looks cheap.
Pile direction has to match across every piece in a room. Flip one drop 180 degrees and the light catches it as a different colour. Manufacturer install guides also ask for the pile to face the main entry where practical, and for joins to stay out of the main walkways.
Loop pile shows joins far more than cut pile, so be stricter with it. Cut pile forgives a join in a robe or behind a door.
Clients who ask for fewer joins can have them, but it means wider pieces and more metres, so price it in. Some builders accept a cross join in a robe or small room and others won't, and it's worth knowing which one you're quoting for.
Turning the run direction is also where the metres hide. On one plan we looked at, one direction needed about 4 lineal metres and the other needed over 7. Try both before you commit.
How much allowance should you add on top of the cuts?
On broadloom, add a little to each cut rather than a flat percentage. Estimators we work with pad each cut by 50 to 200 mm so the installer can tuck it under the skirting. A flat 10% suits a quick budget figure off the floor area, not an order.
A flat percentage on area overshoots on a simple house and undershoots on one full of angles and robes. Allowing a little per cut keeps the allowance where the trimming actually happens. Either way, don't run it short. Installers make mistakes too, and a drop 50 mm short can't be stretched.
Patterned carpet needs one full pattern repeat on top of each drop so the pattern lines up across the join, which can add metres on a big room. Stairs carry their own allowance, covered in the next section. For quick area estimates, the wastage allowance entry has typical percentages.
| Approach | How it works | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Per-cut padding | 50 to 150 mm on each drop for the skirting tuck | Builder work quoted off a cut plan |
| Fixed buffer per cut | About 200 mm on each drop | Retail work where rooms are rarely square |
| Flat percentage | About 10% on the measured area | A quick budget price before the cuts are planned |
How do you quote carpet stairs?
Quote stairs per step and on their own line. Each step needs a piece the tread depth plus the riser height plus about 100 mm, cut at least 1 m wide, and winders need a bigger piece each. Cut the step pieces from offcuts in the same pile direction wherever you can.
A typical step with a 300 mm tread and a 200 mm riser needs about 0.6 m of carpet once you allow for the nosing. Measure the real riser and tread on site rather than trusting the plan. A winder needs a much larger piece, somewhere around 0.9 by 1.5 m to 1.5 by 1.5 m depending on the stair.
Number the step pieces in order on the cut plan so the warehouse and the installer know which offcut becomes which step. Installation labour on stairs is charged per step too, typically around $15 to $30 a step for a straight flight, with more for spindles or a cap-and-band finish.
What else goes on a carpet quote?
Underlay, installation labour, smooth edge, trims and door bars, stairs, removal of the old floor covering, furniture moving and any floor prep. List each one separately. A single all-in price is easy to undercut and hard to defend when a client compares quotes line by line.
Smooth edge runs around the perimeter, so measure it as a lineal run with the doorways included. Trims are bought in whole stock lengths, usually 2.4 to 3.6 m, so count them per doorway and round up to the lengths you can buy. Note the transition at every doorway where carpet meets a hard floor.
Removal, furniture moving and floor prep are the lines most often forgotten, and each one is real money on the day. The ranges below are indicative Australian figures for 2026.
| Line item | Usually priced by | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| Underlay | Square metre | $15 to $25 per m² supplied |
| Installation labour | Square metre or lineal metre | $15 to $30 per m² |
| Smooth edge | Lineal metre of perimeter | $3 to $5 per metre |
| Trims and door bars | Each, or stock length | $15 to $30 each |
| Stairs labour | Step | $15 to $30 per step |
| Uplift and disposal | Square metre | $5 to $15 per m² |
| Furniture moving | Job or item | $50 to $200 a job |
| Floor prep and levelling | Square metre | Quoted after inspection |
What does a worked carpet quote look like?
Take a carpet upgrade covering four bedrooms, robes, a hallway and a 14-step stair, about 70 m² of floor. After planning the cuts with robes and stairs from offcuts, it comes to 22 lineal metres of 3.66 m carpet. At the indicative rates below the quote lands at about $10,100.
The carpet line is the lineal metres times the roll width times the price per square metre, here 22 LM × 3.66 m × $75. Underlay, labour and removal go on the net floor area, smooth edge on the perimeter, and stairs per step. Swap in your own rates and the structure holds.
Most of the money is in the carpet line, which is why the cut plan matters more than anything else on the quote. Each lineal metre saved here is about $275 off the price, or $275 of margin if the price stays put. Our carpet cut list calculator and square metres to lineal metres converter do the conversion for a single room.
| Line | Quantity | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpet, 3.66 m roll | 22 LM (80.5 m²) | $75 per m² | $6,039 |
| Underlay | 70 m² | $18 per m² | $1,260 |
| Installation | 70 m² | $22 per m² | $1,540 |
| Smooth edge | 62 m | $4 per m | $248 |
| Door bars | 6 | $20 each | $120 |
| Stairs labour | 14 steps | $25 per step | $350 |
| Uplift and disposal | 70 m² | $8 per m² | $560 |
| Total | $10,117 |
AreaSum plans the cut list straight off your PDF plan, fills robes and stairs from offcuts, and totals the lineal metres for the quote.
Where do carpet quotes lose money?
Mostly in the cut plan. Running every room as fresh drops instead of filling robes and stairs from offcuts, picking the dearer run direction, and treating the full 3.66 m as usable all add metres. The rest leaks through forgotten line items like coving, removal and prep.
Offcuts are the big one. On one house we looked at, cutting every room as fresh drops came to 18.5 lineal metres. The estimator's hand-drawn plan, with the robes, a doorway and the stairs cut from offcuts, came to 10.6. That gap is roughly $2,000 of carpet on a mid-range product. Where the cut plan leaves a usable piece, note it as an offcut and use it.
The opposite mistake costs jobs rather than margin. An estimator who pads a builder quote by an extra metre on every job has less chance of winning it. Allow enough per cut for the install, then stop.
Anything priced per metre that isn't on the plan can sink a job quietly. One estimator we work with put it plainly. Leave 365 m of vinyl coving off at about $16 a metre and you're close to $6,000 out.
Common questions
Should you quote carpet by the square metre or the lineal metre?
Order and cost it by the lineal metre, because that's how it comes off the roll. Many retail quotes still show the client a price per square metre, which is fine as long as the square metres are the carpet you're buying, not the floor area.
Can you join carpet in the middle of a room?
You can, and it saves carpet, but it shows and clients notice. Put joins in doorways or under where the furniture will sit, and keep the pile running the same way on both sides. Be strictest with loop pile.
Should the client see the join plan?
Yes. A signed-off join plan heads off arguments on install day. Some estimators send it with the measurements hidden, so the client can see where the joins go without getting a cut list to shop around.
How much carpet do you need for a stair?
Allow the tread depth plus the riser height plus about 100 mm per step, at least 1 m wide. A 14-step stair with 300 mm treads and 200 mm risers needs about 14 pieces of 0.6 by 1 m, more for winders.
Is a 4 m roll better than 3.66 m?
Only when the rooms suit it. A 4 m roll removes the join in a 3.7 to 3.9 m room, but most residential ranges come in 3.66 m. Check the range before planning around a 4 m width.